THE Health Ministry has administered some 159,951 first dose and 16,004 second dose of the three (Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V) COVID-19 vaccines since the vaccination campaign against the deadly virus began.

These numbers, as of Tuesday last, represent 32.9 per cent of the adult population residing in Guyana (persons 18 years and older), receiving their first dose, and 3.3 per cent receiving their second dose of the vaccines.

The number of doses of vaccine administered as of Tuesday was disclosed by Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony during his COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Wednesday.

The Health Minister highlighted that while the ministry has recorded an increase in the number of younger persons, who have been willing to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, there is still a large portion of the population who have to be vaccinated as he encouraged everyone to be inoculated against the virus.

He noted that the ministry continues to collaborate with faith-based organisations and community groups, which have so far been instrumental and have done an exceptional job in aiding the rolling out of vaccination campaigns throughout the administrative regions of Guyana.

He stressed, however, that there is a need for many more partnerships, especially in Region 10, as an assessment of the number of vaccinations administered based on the 10 administrative regions reveals that Region 10 has been “lagging behind”.

“We want to encourage groups in Region 10, community-minded citizens, influential people who can talk to others, to make sure that people take their vaccines… we really want to appeal to those persons to assist us,” he said.

Just last week, the Health Minister and a team of his Cabinet colleagues took to the mining town of Linden, Region 10 as part of an effort to improve the willingness among the population to take the vaccine, since it was observed that the town has recorded significantly low numbers of doses administered.